Funds Flow in for Ecevit Zimbabwe
Socialist Press1979 1979-02-07Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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protest against a fascist massacre in the Eastern city of Karamanmaras.
The strike was called by the 'left' wing trade union confederation DiSK-which, however, still supports the bourgeois government of Prime Minister Ecevit and his generals.
The scale of the responsethough diverted into a mere protest action-shows that the Turkish working class has the power to fight back against the martial law repression and fascist violence.
The militancy of Turkish workers has been further fuelled by the mass movement in neighbouring Iran. And that mass movement has also prompted the imperialist nations to look meeting was held in Bonn to discuss how to stabilise. the political situation in Turkey.
Ecevit, who had returned from begging missions empty-handed prior to the fall of the Shah, is now to be given immed. iate cash aid, beginning with $1-1.5 billion from W. Germany.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are also to be invited to participate in raising funds-clearly showing the concern of imperialism and reactionary regimes to 'halt revolutionary struggles in the region.
Interestingly the Libyan regime of Colonel Gaddafi-has also chipped in with a deal to supply oil. on credit to the bankrupt Turkish bourgeoisie. The change of imperialist attitude to the Turkish crisis is And in Greece, Prime Minister Karamaniis has warned that this change will endanger Graok national security.
But the granting of cash aid to Ecavit does not mean that the imperialists have abandoned their strategy of imposing an openly dictatorial military or fascist regime in place of Ecevit's unstable "democratic" administration.
Rather the imperialists recognise that at this point they are unable to implement these plans: the working class is as yet too strong.
The fascists however are continuing their terror campaignnow concentrating their forces in the areas outside the martial law zones already established. class continue to divert the strength of the workers' movemont into support for Ecevit, taking no steps whatever to organise workers' defence squads against fascist violence.
Ecevit's "democratic" credentials are 'meanwhile increasingly tarnished. 500-600 loft wingers are under arrest, and 16 left wing papers have been suppressed in Istanbul alone.
The fight must be to break the Turkish CP, the Turkish Labour Party and the trade unions from Ecevit, and the struggle for a workers' and peasants' government.
Ian Smith last week got his • expected majority vote in the Khodesian white's referendum on the internal settlement draft constitution.
Out of 67,847 votes cast only 9,814 voted against. The guerrilla successes have forced the vast majority of whites behind Smith's attempts to protect white interests through an internal settlement, The terms of the draft constitution approved by the whites in no way lay the basis for "black majority rule' Not only do the whites, at present 1/27th of the the 30 senate seats (10 go population, get 10 out of to blacks and 10 to the Chiefs) but they also get 28 out of the 100 seats in the House of Assembly and a guarantee of five cabinet places, .. Reserved for whites - In addition top administrative posts have effectively been reserved for whites for a number of years to come.
This has been done through the device of spelling out the qualifications needed to fill posts such as the Public Service Commission and the Commissioner of Police, and what procedures are necessary for the appointment of army and airfoice chiefs.
The draft constitution states that a person cannot be appointed Commissioner of Police unless he has held the rank of Assistant Commissioner or any more senior rank for periods which amount to at least five years.
Thus there is no black in the police force who could qualify for the post of Commissioner immediately after 'independence', and even if someone was appointed to senior rank it would take at least five congratulating Smith on the success of his campaign amongst the white population.
And Smith's collaborator Ndabaninge Sithole claimed at the end of his ten-day visit to Britain that a future Tory government would recognise the internal settlement.
But the Labour leaders are engaged in more behind the scenes manoeuvring.
Some weeks ago Callaghan in announcing that he was not calling for the holding of an all-party conference said that the British government could see its role as being based around 'secret diplomacy'.
Rhodesian Foreign' Minister Pieter Van der Byl responded to Callaghan's decision by saying that in Owen future the transitional government would deal with the USA rather than Britain.
At the moment Foreign Secretary David Owen is in the USA talking to Cyrus Vance-mainly about Namibia and Zimbabwe, What reactionary deals are they cooking up in this latest round of "secret diplomacy"?